Get Lit! captures the world Check out our centerfold for festival highlights
Eastern Washington University
SNAP YOUR DIGITAL COPY:
April 1 8, 201 2
Volume 63, Issue 23
Seniors push their game to the next level Photos by Aaron Malmoe
As students prepare for graduation this June, many of them are also looking to their future employment opportunities. For three Eastern football players, Use your smartphone’s QR code reader to download your PDF copy of The Easterner.
that means the possibility of continuing their football careers at the professional level. Read the full story by Fedor Gaponenko on page 9.
Bo Levi Mitchell “Canada is a route I might
Upcoming:
take because it fits my
Did you get the email? EWU Campus Recreation wants your opinion about programs, facilities and additions. You can take their survey here: http://bit.ly/Ihf8iY.
game well just to go out there, sling the ball around and play my game.”
April 20: The Band Invitiation II Finale Concert will be at 6 p.m. in the Music Building Recital Hall. April 21: The department of music performance, Clarinexus, has been cancelled.
April 23 to 27: Pride Week will conclude with a masquerade in the MPR April 27 from 7-11 p.m.
Renard Williams “Anyone who’s willing to give me an opportunity, I will be blessed to have it.”
Matt johnson “I grew up a Cowboys fan, so visiting there was really cool.
April 24: Don't forget to vote in the ASEWU student primaries. April 27 to May 10: The graphic design senior exhibition begins with an opening reception on April 27 to May 10 with an opening reception in the EWU Gallery of Art from 6-8 p.m. In brief: April 20 is “Cover the Night,” an event sponsored by the activist group Invisible Children, starts in the evening on Eastern’s campus. It begins at 8:30 p.m. at AMC at Riverpark Square in downtown Spokane. Occupy Wall Street calls for, “No work, no school, no shopping, no banking, no trading,” on May 1. “Occupy May Day,” is a general strike aimed at getting the attention of the one percent. Occupy Spokane is currently working on organizing its own strike in the Spokane area. The Special Olymics Washington East Region Spring Games will be held at EWU on May 5 and they need 200 volunteers. For information about opportunities available, email Jill Ives at jives@sowa.org.
... But if any team wants me, I’m not going to complain.”
EasternerOnline.com
Getting primed for the primary Record number of candidates run for student government elections By Frank McNeilly staff writer
frank.mcneilly@gmail.com
An all-time high of 36 candidates are campaigning for council and executive positions in the ASEWU student government this year. Legislative affairs, technology advancement and student services have the smallest number of candidates running for those positions. The legislative affairs representative candidates are Corey Metzner and Shelby Pelon. Metzner is a sophomore running for the ASEWU legislative affairs. He is doublemajoring in government and philosophy. Metzner graduated from Ballard High School in Seattle where he learned leadership skills as captain of the swim team and as an Eagle Scout. “In high school, … I was vice president [of the] slam club … which focused on educating people about suicide in recognizing the … warning signs and educating on ways to get help,” Metzner said. “One of my main focuses I want to do is I want to make sure all the students at Eastern are more connected with the policies,” Metzner said. “[Students] don’t realize how big of an impact they can have themselves in structuring the system.” “Whether or not you vote for me, take time and carefully consider who you are voting for and know the implications,” Metzner said. Shelby Pelon is a sophomore running for the ASEWU legislative affairs representative position. She is studying government with hopes
to get a certificate in public policy and administration. Pelon’s leadership experience at Eastern includes serving as the vice president of standards for the Alpha Omicron Pi sorority as well as the legislative liaison for the ASEWU. “I see it as the bulk of my training,” Pelon said. “I was over in Olympia for a quarter working with the Washington Student Association and fighting for the students at Eastern to make sure that we didn’t have any more cuts coming this next year. The legislatures over there actually heard us, so that’s what I want to continue … with this next year.” According to an email from Pelon, if elected, she wants to make sure that students get involved in making their voices heard in Cheney and Olympia through vote campaigns, including onand off-campus students. “What I see as one of our biggest accomplishments is [when] the legislature released the budget a couple of days ago and there were no cuts to higher education this year, which is great,” Pelon said. “That means we’re not really going to see much fluctuation with our tuition, that was the one thing we pushed really hard for over there. elections-page 3
Reed urges youth to voice their votes By Kristie Hsin senior reporter
khhsin@gmail.com
Washington Secretary of State Sam Reed paid EWU a visit as part of his annual College Civics Tour Tuesday April 17, encouraging students to get more involved and registered to vote. With a direct focus on heartening student voter
registration, the event took place in Hargreaves Hall Reading Room at 3 p.m. Reed stressed the issue of young voters having the tendency to be a very “mobile population.” In addition, he also led students in a game of jeopardy. Topics included vocabulary, government, history and geography. Though the audience was small in numbers, the par-
ticipation was enormous. “The majority of it went really well, and I really liked how both teams were really respectful and had fun as well,” said ASEWU Legislative Liaison Shelby Pelon. “And we all knew a lot so that surprised me.” Organized by the Office of Secretary of State’s College Civics Program, Reed will have visited 45 colleges and universities by the end
of this tour. He kicked off his annual tour Monday April 9, visiting Centralia College, Clark College, Washington State University Vancouver and The Evergreen State College. “I think it’s always beneficial … especially the more we can bring public officials to Eastern really helps get our students engaged. A lot of times students feel
kind of disconnected from Olympia just because we’re so far away. It’s really hard to feel that our vote really matters,” said ASEWU Legislative Affairs Representative Kelli Crawford. “Even if it was just a small but active group, they’ll tell their friends and so hopefully more people will be more open to it next year.” reed-page 5
International students score with World Cup Ocaña's vision for tournament continues beyond his presidency By Josh Friesen staff writer
jdfreeze08@gmail.com
Among the traditional intramural sports that are available this spring, a new event, the EWU World Cup, will be held on April 25 and 26. ASEWU President Oscar Ocaña brought up the idea of having a soccer tournament with a World Cup flair, complete with teams representing different countries. Ocaña
wanted the tournament to bring students of different backgrounds together. “When we apply to universities, … we are promised that we are going to have this amazing cultural exchange expeOcaña rience,” Ocaña said. “We have the opportunity to invite our exchange students
to come and join us, but we never do something together.” According to Ocaña, Eastern has many students of differing cultures. He feels the opportunities for interaction between different backgrounds are limited. While this is the first year of the EWU World Cup, Ocaña hopes that it will becomes an annual tradition at Eastern, encouraging more connection between students of different countries. “I wanted to come up with an idea where all of us can do an activity together,” Ocaña said. Ocaña’s vision for the proj-
ect started in the spring of 2011, when he noticed that a group of international students attempted to create the event through the International Student Association. They struggled to get the process up and running. Ocaña shared the same feeling and saw to it that their dreams would be realized. “When I was elected, I thought, ‘Well, that might be a good opportunity for us to reach out to international students,’” Ocaña said. The EWU World Cup will enable students to represent a different country. There are eight players to a team.
They will have the opportunity to pick which country they would like their team to symbolize. This does not necessarily mean that everybody on the team has to be of the same background. Mike Campitelli, director of campus recreation programs, said the event is open to all students, and he expects to see students of all races on the same team. “It’s irrelevant where the eight players come from,” Campitelli said. “It’s a matter of ‘Who do I want to represent?’” world cup-page 9